Introducing Cloud Forests: Botany 101

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Caroline Chaboo

Lima (sea level) to Cusco (3400 m) to Wayqecha (3000 m)…..Quite a change in one day! We were off and running in Cusco with quick stops at the grocery and hardware store for last supplies before heading to more remote areas. Our drive on the winding Manu Highway (a gravel road) to the Wayqecha Biological Station was super dusty. It turns out that it has not rained in these cloud forests for over three weeks. A short dry season usually occurs in August-September so this drought was unusual. The clouds have been coming in over the Amazon Basin, but dropping their moisture at lower elevations. As in Kansas, a dry season means reduced insect activity. Our first 3-hr trail walk today through cloud forests turned into a botany exercise since I point out the forest structure, physical characteristics, and plant composition. We go slowly, testing our fitness at this elevation; the students are breaking in their new clothing and shoes. I aim to introduce the forest structure and its plants, to learn some familiar plant families and some rare/unusual ones—Orchids and ferns, mosses and lichens, Proteceace, Bamboo, Solanaceae, Rubiaceae, Selaginellas, and tree ferns. The filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae) are just one cell thick, transparent and rely on damp conditions; well, they were crispy ferns, dried and dormant, awaiting rain. We got far out on the trail, when the clouds rolled in and poured! The intermittent canopy slows the drips, but we were still quite soaked by the time we returned to the station buildings. We might be huffing and puffing on the first walks at this elevation, but we had a glorious morning of botanising. And the filmy ferns are happy again.